Kukla's Korner Hockey

According to an NHL executive, Islanders owner Charles Wang and DiPietro are on the verge of announcing they have reached agreement on a 15-year contract worth $67.5 million. The deal is believed to be the longest in NHL history and second in the history of major North American professional sports behind the 25-year deal worth $25 million that Magic Johnson signed with the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers in 1981.
DiPietro, who turns 25 a week from today, is scheduled to receive $4.5 million in each season of the contract. Although the total financial package represents a major investment by the Islanders, DiPietro's salary ranks eighth among NHL goaltenders for the coming season, leaves them $2 million under the current salary cap and should look like more of a bargain as the cap rises in the future.

Of course, we all have been told that the Islanders are being run by a committee these days, and of course, we don't believe it. The decision to give the unproven goalie one of the longest contracts in the history of pro sports is not the work of a committee. It has the fingerprints of only one man, owner Charles Wang, who likes to think big.
County officials forced Wang to abandon his plan for a huge tower at the proposed Coliseum redevelopment, so he has decided to do the next-best thing. He is making a monument out of a 24-year-old goalie who has decent statistics but never has won a playoff series or an Olympic medal.
The deal isn't horrible. Silly, maybe, but not horrible. It is not going to hamstring the Islanders the way Wang's misguided 10-year, $87.5-million commitment to Alexei Yashin has hurt them. They are going to pay DiPietro an average of $4.5 million a year, which probably is a lower salary than he would get if he were to become a free agent in two years.